Wow, so weird.. some of your stuff like in your last post (1st and 3rd pics) don't match at all with the other stuff you do like the guy doing Capoeira (or whatever he's doing, the guy with the white pants).

Anyway, some of your drawings have nice muscle flowing but some are a bit strange (like the wolf-thing and the guy in your comic).

Mik2121- Yeah, I'll admit the comic pages are pretty bad. It's a rush job. Things tend to get wonky if I rush it or go without reference, but I'm working on it. I just feel pressed for time but that's no excuse.

Speaking of which, I was displeased with the output I did so I'm taking the time to work on a study slowly. Here's what I've got so far.

Only one thing today, I got sucked into too many debates and whatnot. I tried drawing at least something from reference and I figured it would be extremely beneficial to post a screw up.

I do this all the time. I have huge difficulties drawing things symmetrically, always have, I'll show you how bad it is. Is there any exercise I can do to fix this? I think it'd be a huge break through if I could learn how to get over this. So far I don't have a clue how to overcome this.

regarding your symettry issue, looks like you just start painting away. try starting out with a rather defined preliminary sketch. that way you have some guidelines instead of getting carried away without noticing mistakes until it's too late. i do the same thing as you! lol

Nice work mate. In reference to what was said about symmetry. Center Lines are your friends. If you throw down a vertical center line and a horizontal center line you well almost never skew the face. However you still need learn other landmarks. Like the inside corner of the eyes roughly lining up with the outsides of the nostrils ETC. Learn those and you're golden. Also in reference to getting carried away. You might be working into detail too early which is what draws a lot of attention away on placement.

So get the overall shape and placement of important features and then work your way through. Also when you work from reference try to figure out you're own landmarks and see where things line up. You should spend more time looking at the reference than at whatever it is you're drawing or painting.

It's a somewhat difficult piece to study. First off the left hand side is much more lifelike and smooth. On the right hand side the planes of the face come to the surface. You have to think of the face as simple geometric shapes to get this. Like has been said, layout a sketch using guidelines (cutting the face equally down the center, ears begin right above the upper eyelid and end right around the nostrils, iris is equal to the corners of the mouth)

You did cheat with the warp tool and it's a good thing you said that. Next time take a little more time and repaint it. Don't rely on other tools to magically fix it like that, especially for studies where you are trying to observe and learn. Right now the biggest flaw would be that someone took her face and pulled it towards the bottom right hand corner, skewing it. You've got the values down right though, I'd try one more time with a sketch first.

007-r0b3r7- Thanks! I tend to have the same problem with lines as I do directly painting when it comes to symmetry, but it helped.

ThabisoMhlaba- Sometimes I forget about the centre line, but it seemed to help. I know all about the different lengths of the face(except I need to look up on the width) but I wasn't paying much attention this time around.

Gamerhomie- Thanks, I tried it with paying attention to the face dimensions as well.

OK, so this looks much better. There's some flaws(obviously), but it's good step in the right direction. Took about 3h 30m.

You have some good studies, keep it up. I think one thing I would like to see more of in your work is the essence of what you are recreating. This is a hard thing to explain. When you do a portrait of someone and put down all the marks you see you are still missing the personality of that person. This needs to come through in the art which means you need to figure out how to tap into that feeling when creating. Everything has a personality and energy to it. You are really not just depicting colors and lines you are attempting to recreate what the energy is and is expressing. If you only see colors and lines then thats all it turns out to be and the viewer picks up on that. It really leaves the peice feeling uneasy and unfinished. This is really talking about going past technical ability. I know that studies are meant to improve technical abilities but this really is the secret ingredient. So practice this just as much as everything else. Go find some good portraits painted of people and see if you can see that the artist managed to capture the essence. Even a landscape or animal. Its there. Take Care!

Hey there, you have some really solid things going on here. The one thing I noticed about your bust though is that the jaw seems a little too wide, which is throwing it off as far as the symmetry. I know you were struggling with that a lot, but keep at it and soon it'll become easier. Keep at it!

majortom- Thanks! I didn't notice the jaw was too wide until after, I guess I keep forgetting about the width of the overall head.

Angela- Awesome, thanks!

Krato- Thanks for the tip.

jatherip- I'll keep it in mind. I've heard about blues and purples for dark and yellows for light, what about those?

darknight- Good idea, I need to track some down.

OK, so I missed a day. I did draw, but nothing was coming out right and I decided not to post them, but I did finally get what everyone was saying about paying attention about the planes because I realized while I've been studying with planes for 2 years now, I haven't been applying them properly and keeping them in mind when it comes to the face. Who knows, maybe other places too.

I'm trying to learn drawing with the underhand grip, it's hard, I don't have a proper desk to do graphite on. I feel like I went back 2 years ago in skill when I did it, I probably need more practise or maybe I was learning in the wrong way. Still frustrating.

More on that study, the cloth is hard to draw. Took a break and watched Dave Rapoza's livestream and got inspired to draw an Orc in his style. Or at least similar. I think I'm too tired to finish it in one sitting.